Founded on May 6, 1902, by August Belmont, Jr., the IRT's mission was to operate New York City's initial underground rapid transit system after Belmont's and John B. McDonald's Rapid Transit Construction Company was awarded the rights to build the railway line in 1900, outbidding Andrew Onderdonk.[3]:20–22 On April 1, 1903, over a year before its first subway line opened, the IRT acquired the pre-existing elevated Manhattan Railway by lease, gaining a monopoly on rapid transit in Manhattan. The Manhattan EL was the operator of four elevated railways in Manhattan with an extension into the Bronx. The IRT coordinated some services between what became its subway and elevated divisions, but all the lines of the former Manhattan EL have since been dismantled.

In 1913, as a result of massive expansion in the city, the IRT signed the Dual Contracts with Brooklyn Rapid Transit (BRT) in order to expand the subway.[4] The agreement also locked the subway fare at 5 cents for forty-nine years.[5] The IRT unsuccessfully attempted to raise the fare to seven cents in 1929, in a case that went to the United States Supreme Court.[6]

The IRT ceased to function as a privately held company on June 12, 1940, when its properties and operations were acquired by the City of New York.

Flushing Line, on October 16, 1949, the joint BMT/IRT service arrangement ended. The Flushing Line became the responsibility of IRT. The Astoria Line had its platforms shaved back for exclusive BMT operation.

Note that this is a list of New York City Subway lines, which are the physical infrastructure over which services operate.Lines with colors next to them are trunk lines; trunk lines determine the color of New York City Subway service bullets, except for shuttles, which are dark gray.

1.
New York City
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The City of New York, often called New York City or simply New York, is the most populous city in the United States. With an estimated 2015 population of 8,550,405 distributed over an area of about 302.6 square miles. Located at the tip of the state of New York. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy and has described as the cultural and financial capital of the world. Situated on one of the worlds largest natural harbors, New York City consists of five boroughs, the five boroughs – Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, The Bronx, and Staten Island – were consolidated into a single city in 1898. In 2013, the MSA produced a gross metropolitan product of nearly US$1.39 trillion, in 2012, the CSA generated a GMP of over US$1.55 trillion. NYCs MSA and CSA GDP are higher than all but 11 and 12 countries, New York City traces its origin to its 1624 founding in Lower Manhattan as a trading post by colonists of the Dutch Republic and was named New Amsterdam in 1626. The city and its surroundings came under English control in 1664 and were renamed New York after King Charles II of England granted the lands to his brother, New York served as the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790. It has been the countrys largest city since 1790, the Statue of Liberty greeted millions of immigrants as they came to the Americas by ship in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and is a symbol of the United States and its democracy. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance. Several sources have ranked New York the most photographed city in the world, the names of many of the citys bridges, tapered skyscrapers, and parks are known around the world. Manhattans real estate market is among the most expensive in the world, Manhattans Chinatown incorporates the highest concentration of Chinese people in the Western Hemisphere, with multiple signature Chinatowns developing across the city. Providing continuous 24/7 service, the New York City Subway is one of the most extensive metro systems worldwide, with 472 stations in operation. Over 120 colleges and universities are located in New York City, including Columbia University, New York University, and Rockefeller University, during the Wisconsinan glaciation, the New York City region was situated at the edge of a large ice sheet over 1,000 feet in depth. The ice sheet scraped away large amounts of soil, leaving the bedrock that serves as the foundation for much of New York City today. Later on, movement of the ice sheet would contribute to the separation of what are now Long Island and Staten Island. The first documented visit by a European was in 1524 by Giovanni da Verrazzano, a Florentine explorer in the service of the French crown and he claimed the area for France and named it Nouvelle Angoulême. Heavy ice kept him from further exploration, and he returned to Spain in August and he proceeded to sail up what the Dutch would name the North River, named first by Hudson as the Mauritius after Maurice, Prince of Orange

2.
New York City Transit Authority
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The New York City Transit Authority is a public authority in the U. S. state of New York that operates public transportation in New York City. Part of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the busiest and largest transit system in North America, the NYCTA operates the following systems, New York City Subway, a rapid transit system in Manhattan, The Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens. Staten Island Railway, a transit line in Staten Island New York City Bus. As part of establishing a common identity, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in 1994 assigned popular names to each of its subsidiaries and affiliates. The New York City Transit Authority is now known popularly as MTA New York City Transit, newer contracts and RFPs, however, have also used the popular name. The Authority is also referred to as NYCT, or simply the TA. The Executive Director of the MTA is, ex officio, Executive Director of the Transit Authority, the Transit Authority has its own management structure which is responsible for its day-to-day operations, with executive personnel reporting to the agency president. Veronique “Ronnie” Hakim is the current President of New York City Transit, the subway system today is composed of what once were three separate systems in competition with one another. Two of them were built and operated by companies, August Belmonts Interborough Rapid Transit Company. The third, the public Independent Subway System was owned and operated by the City of New York. The IRT and BMT systems were acquired by the city on June 1,1940 for $317,000,000, the buses on Staten Island had been operated by a private company operating under a franchise that expired in 1946. When it became known that the company would not renew its franchise and this group ran into financial difficulties and the city took over the company on February 23,1947. The city then controlled all of the bus routes on Staten Island, on March 30,1947, the City took over the bus lines of the North Shore Bus Company, which comprised half of the privately owned lines in Queens, after that company went into financial troubles. On September 24,1948, the City acquired five bus lines in Manhattan for similar reasons, factories began to work around the clock, and therefore business boomed. Transit repairs were kept at a minimum as basic materials were in supply for civilian use. Operating revenues were raised and maintenance costs were reduced, but as a result, the future problems of deferred maintenance and falling ridership. In 1946, costs rose and profits turned to losses, and to obtain needed funds, the fare was raised in 1948 to ten cents on the subways and elevated and this increase only produced a revenue surplus for a single year. In 1951 a uniform ten-cent fare was established on both the transit and surface lines

3.
R62A (New York City Subway car)
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The R62A is a New York City Subway car built between 1984 and 1987 by Bombardier in La Pocatiere, Quebec, with final assembly done in Auburn, New York and Barre, Vermont under a license from Kawasaki. The R62As replaced the R17s, R21s, and R22s, which were all retired by early 1988 and this leaves the 7 with the only R62As that operate as single cars, in order to make 11-car trains. Twenty cars are reserved to run in service on the 42nd Street Shuttle, by contrast, the cars on the 1 and 42nd Street Shuttle have never been equipped with local/express indicators. These lights remained as the R188s displaced the 7s R62As to the 6, following the successful delivery of the 325-car R62 order from Kawasaki Heavy Industries, the New York City Transit Authority put out a bid for an additional 825 cars. While Bombardier offered a price per car than Budd had. In addition, Budd proposed using unapproved and untested motors, and similarly untested technology that broke down on the R44. The first ten R62As, numbered 1651-1660, had their body shells built by Kawasaki Heavy Industries and were shipped to Bombardier for their use as samples during their production. They were placed in service on the 1 train on May 29,1985, in 1989,2256 collided with a revenue collection train at 103rd Street, this car was also repaired and eventually returned to service. On November 24,1996, a train of R62As on the 6 train derailed south of Hunts Point Avenue. Cars 1716 and 1909 were significantly damaged, while 1716 was rebuilt and returned to service,1909 was permanently retired due to damage to its body and frame, and scrapped in 2001. Initial replacement of the R62As is currently scheduled for 2026 through 2028, there are proposals for mid-life technological upgrades for the R62As, including LED destination signs and automated announcements, though it is unlikely that these improvements will be carried out. R62 - a similar model built by Kawasaki Heavy Industries Corp, evolution of New York City subways, An illustrated history of New York Citys transit cars, 1867-1997

4.
R142 (New York City Subway car)
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The R142 is the first model class of the newest generation or new technology IRT cars for the New York City Subway. It was built by Bombardier in La Pocatiere, Quebec and Barre, Vermont with final assembly performed at Plattsburgh, New York, there are 880 cars numbered #6301–7180, with another 150 cars numbered #1101–1250, for a total of 1,030 cars. Along with the R142As, they replaced all of the existing Redbird trains, including the R26, R28, R29, R33, R33 WF, R36, and R36 WF. On April 30,1997, the Board of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority approved the purchase of 680 cars from Bombardier and 400 cars from Kawasaki. The original purchase order was for 740 cars, but because of the competition between the firms, the MTA was able to purchase 340 cars at the same price. The entire cost of the purchase was $1.45 billion, the new subway cars were based on the results of the tests from the R110A and R110B test trains. The historic deal came after negotiations and the contract was the largest subway car purchase in the history of the New York City Subway up to this point. The first 10 R142s numbered #6301–6310 were delivered on November 16,1999, regular service began on the 2 train on July 10,2000, after several months of testing and troubleshooting of all bugs. The R142s and R142As replaced all of the Redbirds—the R26, R28, R29, R33, R33 WF, the 1,030 R142 cars have Alstom ONIX AC propulsion, electronic braking, automatic climate control, electronic strip maps, and an on-board intercom system. The R142 and the R142A was partly designed by Antenna Design, there are two types of cars, A and B. A cars are powered with four traction motors each, with the passenger doors opposite each other, the B cars are powered by two traction motors at the number-two end, and the passenger doors are staggered. The trains are linked up in 5-car, A-B-B-B-A sets, but also can be linked in sets of 4 cars,6 cars,9 cars, the R142/A cars are similar to the R110A cars, with 54-inch side doors. All car ends have windows, allowing passengers to see through to the car, except unit ends. R142 car bodies are stainless steel, the R142 and R142As are the first fleets to feature recorded announcements. All later NTTs will later have this feature, dianne Thompson, announcements on the 2 train as well as the other IRT Broadway – Seventh Avenue Line trains when the R142s run on them in rare occasions. Charlie Pellett, Announcement to warn passengers of the doors, safety announcements, delay announcements. These people were news anchors with Bloomberg Radio at the time the announcements were recorded, since then, Ettinger and Pellett are now at 1010 WINS-AM and Sirius Satellite Radio working with Howard Stern and his Howard 100 news team. New Technology Train - A list of all NTT trains on the New York City Subway, R142A - a similar car built by Kawasaki Railcar Corp. of Kobe, Japan

5.
R188 (New York City Subway car)
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The R188 is an A Division new technology car constructed by the Kawasaki Heavy Industries Rolling Stock Company for the New York City Subway. The MTA is displacing the R62As from the 7 <7> services with these cars to automate the IRT Flushing Line, the R188 is part of both the fourth and fifth generation of New York City Subway A Division rolling stock. 380 R142As are converted to R188s, along with deliveries of 126 new R188 cars, the R188s comprise fleet numbers #7211-7590 and #7811-7936. In addition to providing six extra 11-car trains for the 7 Subway Extension, at the time that the R188 order was placed, forty R62A 11-car trainsets were assigned to the 7 service. Of these 506 cars,230 are arranged in 5-car sets while the remaining 276 are arranged in 6-car sets, six extra R188 trainsets were ordered in conjunction with CBTC installation and 7 Subway Extension. According to the 2010–2014 capital plan,146 new cars were to be purchased. Of these new cars,110 cars would go to make up 10 new 11-car trains, the original planned total of 46 11-car trains would still result from this order. In the latest revision, however, only 88 new cars were to be purchased to form 8 new 11-car trains, with 38 C cars, likewise, the number of conversion cars was altered to 370. The MTA also decided to have Kawasaki perform all of the conversions at the Yonkers plant instead of 207th Street Shop as part of that contract modification. The contract was specified at $87,094,272 for the order, which consisted of 33 cars, and $384,315,168 for the option order. According to a February 2012 update, the MTA had expected to have 8 conversion sets in service by the time that the 7 Subway Extension is opened for revenue service, in addition, the breakdown of the trainsets has been disclosed. Operationally, the R188s are coupled as such, A-C-B-B-A+A-B-B-B-C-A, where dashes signify link bars, thirty-eight R142A B cars, therefore, will be converted into R188 C cars, in addition to the 38 deliveries of new C cars. The 10 converted R142A cars from the order were completed in December 2011 at Kawasakis Yonkers facility. The 23 new cars from the order were completed in mid-2012, delivered in November 2013. On November 9,2013, the first R188 train, consisting of cars #7811-7821, were placed in service on the 7 train as part of its 30-day revenue acceptance test, after successful completion, it entered revenue service by December 15,2013. By July 2014, the schedule had slipped by about 6–7 months. However, delivery of the cars sped up, all remaining R188 cars were expected to be delivered by the end of July 2016, the R188s are equipped with the latest control system, HVAC, and public address system to guarantee the utmost safety and passenger comfort. They are similar to the R142As, but can only be compatible with the converted R142As that feature CBTC

6.
Track gauge
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In rail transport, track gauge is the spacing of the rails on a railway track and is measured between the inner faces of the load-bearing rails. All vehicles on a network must have running gear that is compatible with the track gauge, as the dominant parameter determining interoperability, it is still frequently used as a descriptor of a route or network. There is a distinction between the gauge and actual gauge at some locality, due to divergence of track components from the nominal. Railway engineers use a device, like a caliper, to measure the actual gauge, the nominal track gauge is the distance between the inner faces of the rails. In current practice, it is specified at a distance below the rail head as the inner faces of the rail head are not necessarily vertical. In some cases in the earliest days of railways, the company saw itself as an infrastructure provider only. Colloquially the wagons might be referred to as four-foot gauge wagons, say and this nominal value does not equate to the flange spacing, as some freedom is allowed for. An infrastructure manager might specify new or replacement track components at a variation from the nominal gauge for pragmatic reasons. Track is defined in old Imperial units or in universally accepted metric units or SI units, Imperial units were established in United Kingdom by The Weights and Measures Act of 1824. In addition, there are constraints, such as the load-carrying capacity of axles. Narrow gauge railways usually cost less to build because they are lighter in construction, using smaller cars and locomotives, as well as smaller bridges, smaller tunnels. Narrow gauge is often used in mountainous terrain, where the savings in civil engineering work can be substantial. Broader gauge railways are generally expensive to build and require wider curves. There is no single perfect gauge, because different environments and economic considerations come into play, a narrow gauge is superior if ones main considerations are economy and tight curvature. For direct, unimpeded routes with high traffic, a broad gauge may be preferable, the Standard, Russian, and 46 gauges are designed to strike a reasonable balance between these factors. In addition to the general trade-off, another important factor is standardization, once a standard has been chosen, and equipment, infrastructure, and training calibrated to that standard, conversion becomes difficult and expensive. This also makes it easier to adopt an existing standard than to invent a new one and this is true of many technologies, including railroad gauges. The reduced cost, greater efficiency, and greater economic opportunity offered by the use of a common standard explains why a number of gauges predominate worldwide

7.
New York City Subway
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Opened in 1904, the New York City Subway is one of the worlds oldest public transit systems, one of the worlds most used metro systems, and the metro system with the most stations. It offers service 24 hours per day, every day of the year, the New York City Subway is the largest rapid transit system in the world by number of stations, with 472 stations in operation. Stations are located throughout the boroughs of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Port Authority Trans-Hudson and the AirTrain JFK, in Manhattan and Queens respectively, accept the subways MetroCard but are not operated by the MTA and do not allow free transfers. Another mass transit service that is not operated by the MTA, the system is also one of the worlds longest. Overall, the system contains 236 miles of routes, translating into 665 miles of track. In 2015, the subway delivered over 1.76 billion rides, averaging approximately 5.7 million daily rides on weekdays and a combined 5.9 million rides each weekend. Of the systems 25 services,22 of them pass through Manhattan, the exceptions being the G train, the Franklin Avenue Shuttle, and the Rockaway Park Shuttle. Large portions of the subway outside Manhattan are elevated, on embankments, or in open cuts, in total, 40% of track is not underground despite the subway moniker. Many lines and stations have both express and local services and these lines have three or four tracks. Normally, the two are used for local trains, while the inner one or two are used for express trains. Stations served by express trains are typically major transfer points or destinations, alfred Ely Beach built the first demonstration for an underground transit system in New York City in 1869 and opened it in February 1870. The tunnel was never extended for political and financial reasons, although extensions had been planned to take the tunnel southward to The Battery, the Great Blizzard of 1888 helped demonstrate the benefits of an underground transportation system. A plan for the construction of the subway was approved in 1894, the first underground line of the subway opened on October 27,1904, almost 36 years after the opening of the first elevated line in New York City, which became the IRT Ninth Avenue Line. The fare was $0.05 and on the first day the trains carried over 150,000 passengers, the oldest structure still in use opened in 1885 as part of the BMT Lexington Avenue Line in Brooklyn and is now part of the BMT Jamaica Line. The oldest right-of-way, which is part of the BMT West End Line near Coney Island Creek, was in use in 1864 as a railroad called the Brooklyn, Bath. By the time the first subway opened, the lines had been consolidated into two privately owned systems, the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company and the Interborough Rapid Transit Company, the city built most of the lines and leased them to the companies. This required it to be run at cost, necessitating fares up to double the five-cent fare popular at the time, in 1940, the city bought the two private systems. Some elevated lines ceased service immediately while others closed soon after, integration was slow, but several connections were built between the IND and BMT, these now operate as one division called the B Division

8.
Elevated railway
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An elevated railway is a rapid transit railway with the tracks above street level on a viaduct or other elevated structure. The railway may be standard gauge, narrow gauge, light rail, monorail, Elevated railways are usually used in urban areas where there would otherwise be a large number of level crossings. Most of the time, the tracks of elevated railways that run on steel viaducts can be seen from street level, the earliest elevated railway was the London and Greenwich Railway on a brick viaduct of 878 arches, built between 1836 and 1838. The first 2.5 miles of the London and Blackwall Railway was also on a viaduct, during the 1840s there were other schemes for elevated railways in London which did not come to fruition. From the late 1860s elevated railways became popular in US cities, the New York West Side and Yonkers Patent Railway operated with cable cars from 1868 to 1870, thereafter locomotive-hauled. This was followed by the Manhattan Railway in 1875, the South Side Elevated Railroad, Chicago, the Chicago transit system itself is known as L, short for elevated. The Berlin Stadtbahn is also mainly elevated, the first electric elevated railway was the Liverpool Overhead Railway, which operated through Liverpool docks from 1893 until 1956. In London, the Docklands Light Railway is an elevated railway that opened in 1987 and. The trains are driverless and automatic, another modern elevated railway is Tokyos driverless Yurikamome line, opened in 1995. Most monorails are elevated railways, such as the Disneyland Monorail System, the Tokyo Monorail, the Sydney Monorail, the KL Monorail, the Las Vegas Monorail, many maglev railways are also elevated. During the 1890s there was some interest in railways, particularly in Germany, with the Schwebebahn Dresden. H-Bahn suspension railways were built in Dortmund and Düsseldorf airport,1975, the Memphis Suspension Railway opened in 1982. Shonan Monorail and Chiba Urban Monorail in Japan, despite their names, are suspension railways too, People mover or automated people mover is a type of driverless grade-separated, mass-transit system. The term is used only to describe systems that serve as loops or feeder systems. Similar to monorails, Bombardier Innovia APM technology uses only one rail to guide the vehicle along the guideway, aPMs are common at airports and effective at helping passengers quickly reach their gates. Elevator Grade separation Monorail Railway Rapid transit People mover Trackless

9.
Rapid transit
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Rapid transit, also known as heavy rail, metro, subway, tube, or underground, is a type of high-capacity public transport generally found in urban areas. The stations typically have high platforms, without steps inside the trains and they are typically integrated with other public transport and often operated by the same public transport authorities. However, some transit systems have at-grade intersections between a rapid transit line and a road or between two rapid transit lines. It is unchallenged in its ability to transport large numbers of people quickly over short distances with little use of land, variations of rapid transit include people movers, small-scale light metro, and the commuter rail hybrid S-Bahn. The worlds first rapid-transit system was the partially underground Metropolitan Railway which opened as a railway in 1863. In 1868, New York opened the elevated West Side and Yonkers Patent Railway, china has the largest number of rapid transit systems in the world. The worlds longest single-operator rapid transit system by length is the Shanghai Metro. The worlds largest single rapid transit service provider by both length of revenue track (665 miles and number of stations is the New York City Subway. The busiest rapid transit systems in the world by annual ridership are the Tokyo subway system, the Seoul Metropolitan Subway, the Moscow Metro, the Beijing Subway, Metro is the most common term for underground rapid transit systems used by non-native English speakers. One of these terms may apply to a system, even if a large part of the network runs at ground level. In Scotland, however, the Glasgow Subway underground rapid transit system is known as the Subway, in the US, underground mass transit systems are primarily known as subways, whereas the term metro is a shortened reference to a metropolitan area. In that vein, Chicagos commuter rail system, serving the area, is called Metra. Exceptions in naming rapid transit systems are Washington DCs subway system the Washington Metro, Los Angeles Metro Rail, and the Miami Metrorail, the opening of Londons steam-hauled Metropolitan Railway in 1863 marked the beginning of rapid transit. Initial experiences with steam engines, despite ventilation, were unpleasant, experiments with pneumatic railways failed in their extended adoption by cities. Electric traction was more efficient, faster and cleaner than steam, in 1890 the City & South London Railway was the first electric-traction rapid transit railway, which was also fully underground. Both railways were merged into London Underground. The 1893 Liverpool Overhead Railway was designed to use electric traction from the outset, budapest in Hungary and Glasgow, Chicago and New York all converted or purpose-designed and built electric rail services. Advancements in technology have allowed new automated services, hybrid solutions have also evolved, such as tram-train and premetro, which incorporate some of the features of rapid transit systems

The New York City Board of Transportation or the Board of Transportation of the City of New York (NYCBOT or BOT) was a …

The side of an Arnine, an original IND subway car purchased by the BOT, bearing the name "City of New York".

A GM "old-look" transit bus bearing the original green and white color scheme of the Board of Transportation, and a white circular BOT logo. The color scheme would be inherited by the Transit Authority.